Parents' Day 1985 (Part I)

You make me feel very good today everybody looks bright and young.
Today is the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Parents'
Day. Actually, Parents' Day falls on April 20 this year but because
of circumstances, we are gathered here today to celebrate it.

There are so many organizations and churches, but there is only
one Unification Church, isn't that true? The Unification Church has a
vast and profound philosophical foundation, but at the same time it
has a plan of action that is equivalent in depth to the philosophy
that it expounds. The teachings we follow are very deep and also the
things that we do are quite profound. The Unification Church has a
mysteriousness about it. Unless one actually joins the Unification
Church, he or she cannot really understand the church in depth. The
Unification Church has its own unique celebrations and holidays that
stem from novel aspects of our understanding of God and the universe.
An example of this is Parents' Day.

It is not common for a member of a particular faith or religion to
worry about the salvation of the world. Usually people are concerned
only about their own salvation, securing their own little "cubbyhole"
upstairs. That is in fact a self-centered attitude toward salvation.
It is also commonly understood that salvation comes only through
one's particular faith or denomination. Many people think they can
receive salvation by following their own special creed or doctrine.

Many Ways to One Goal

The many different religions -- Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism,
Hinduism, Islam, and so on -- are each trying to offer the world a
particular way of salvation. Each religion looks at God from its own
point of view. Throughout history, Christians have thought of God as
being only the God of Christians. Muslims hive likewise perceived Him
as being only the God of Islam. The other religions do the same
thing. What about the Unification Church? The Unification Church
believes in a God who is the God of the entire universe, the God of
all people. We are trying to bring together all religions into one
common understanding of that universal God: one universal faith.

Only one God presides over all of humanity. People are climbing up
one great mountain; there are many different ways to get to the
pinnacle, although the people who are climbing may not see them. But
once everyone arrives at the top of the mountain, they will begin to
recognize each other. They will say, "Oh, these people are here,
too. They were seeking the same goal as we were." Eventually all
humanity will arrive at the same destination. While we are striving
to reach the pinnacle, we must try to embrace and unite with each
other.

Everybody claims that his own religion is the closest one to God.
For instance, established Christianity, Islam, aid Judaism all
profess to have the closest position to God. But the time will
definitely come when we all arrive at the pinnacle and meet each
other.

Human beings fell from their original position; from that point,
the upward journey of humanity began and it has continued to this
day. All of humanity is destined to end its journey in one ultimate
culminating point. When humankind arrives at that terminus, everyone
will realize that all people have one common destiny.

The question then arises: Are there two different kinds of
salvation, or only one? If people think there is more than one kind
of salvation, they are denying the unique and absolute nature of
almighty God. If Gad indeed exists as the Creator of all, then He
must have one ideal, one purpose of creation: not two or three. He
absolutely has only one plan of salvation and one purpose, one goal.

If there is one God, one will, and one salvation, would the
individual path be different from the family path or the national
path? Would they all go in different directions or should they all go
in one direction? They should go in one direction. When we come to
the final destination, then we will realize that whether the
dispensational level is based on the individual, the family, the
tribe, the nation, or the world, it is centered upon the same axis.
The circle gets bigger and bigger, but the center is always the same.

God's Three Kinds of Power

God has many kinds of motion; He dispenses many types of energy.
Besides the power of love, there is the power of life or the
maintenance of existence. You must exist and you need energy to
exist. There is also a certain energy that pursues the ideal. Human
beings always strive to find or achieve something better; people have
the inborn desire to pursue goodness, and are moving ever closer to
the absolute good. When we attain that purity of goodness, we will
never want to lose it, but will desire to abide in that state of
absolute goodness forever.

God has three aspects of power: the power to pursue the ideal; the
power to create and maintain existence; and the power to love. Does
that threefold power exist in a random state, without order and
discipline, just moving all over the place, or does that power pursue
some common goal? What do you think? Among all these powers, which do
you think is the central, focal power, the core of God's energy? The
power to love. What is the difference between true love and
not-so-true love?

First of all, in order to be truly loved, you need someone else
with whom to have give and take. You cannot just be all by yourself.
This is of crucial importance. Even God cannot derive joy from love
if He is all by Himself. God doesn't sit on His throne and say, "I
am almighty and I am enjoying absolute love." No matter how hard
God might try to be happy all by Himself, He can't find happiness
that way. If God didn't seek an object with whom to share love, would
it be normal? It would be abnormal. The normal way is to yearn for an
object; if God did not feel the need for an object, He would be
crazy. Without that object, He has no way to fulfill His love. You
are in the position of object of God's love. In order for God's power
of existence to have meaning, that power must have a purpose and a
goal. The ideal is that goal. But how can the ideal be fulfilled?
Only through true love. Therefore love determines the purpose for all
God's power.

What is the quality of love that a person seeks? When you are
truly pursuing the goal of true love, even though you may be living
all by yourself, all things will come and help you. If you as husband
and wife must live separately, you still have a common purpose and
ideal -- to fulfill the love in your relationship. So you can always
feel that there is someone who loves you, and you in feel an
exhilaration because of that.

The happiness which everyone desires cannot come until the
individual's existence and ideal meet with the permanent ideal: true
love. Then the person takes the position of an object who can have
permanent give and take with the permanent subject in true love. That
alone can engender happiness to every man and woman. When you
recognize the absolute Being as the subject who has an absolute
purpose for existence and for achieving the ideal, and when you make
yourself the object to that entity, then you can truly experience
happiness.

Plus God and Minus God

If a reciprocal relationship is necessary to fulfill love, why are
there not in fact two Gods, one who plays the role of object and the
other the role of subject? If that were the case, there would be two
pluses in the universe. Plus repels plus, so there could be no
harmony or unity unless one God were the minus God, or the object
God. What God needs is a minus God, and so the Almighty determined to
create one.

The creation is none other than God's effort to create a minus God
with whom to have a relationship. Do you think there should be a
showdown between the plus God and the minus God to decide who should
be subject and who should be object? That is already determined,
already naturally organized for the sake of harmony.

In order for harmony to be created, there must be contrasting
components, which are then brought together and united. If everything
and everybody were identical -- God and human beings, men and women
-- there would be no harmony, and therefore no joy.

That is why God created men and women to be different. When two
hard things come together and crash, what happens? Both are
shattered. However, when one hard and one soft entity come together,
the soft wraps around the hard. Man is like the bone; woman wraps
around him like the flesh. When man and woman, hard and soft, unite
in this way, the man feels such joy that he can go out all over the
world and accomplish great things. The woman, wrapped around him,
gets a free ride!

Within the essentiality of God there is a subject portion and an
object portion: the masculine or plus and the feminine or minus, as
well as internal character and external form. These all harmonize
together and create one giant plus character. Within the human
sphere, there must also be subject and object: masculine and
feminine, and internal character and external form. When these come
together, they create a great minus God for that great plus God.

The ultimate destiny of man is to receive the love of God; our
ultimate subject is God. In order to reach the love of God, people
must come together as plus and minus. 1 his is why men need women and
women need men: only together can we create the harmony with which we
can reach the love of God. That is the entire purpose of creation.

When men and women come together in love, the impact is so great
that they would be shattered if they didn't have God as their
cushion. God gets squeezed in between the two, and is Himself ignited
with true love. Once God is ignited in this way, there is no limit to
the action that can take place. Actually, in that situation God is
wrapped around by the true love of men and women. Everybody in that
embrace is permanently welded together -- God, man, and woman. They
never want to leave each other. God feels, "How wonderful is man
and woman!"

In this sense, man can educate God. Through having shared in the
bonding of man and woman, God can experience the impact of true love
for the first time. Even though God is almighty, you can say to Him,
"You cannot be fulfilled without us." And God will say, "I
have learned a lesson from you! I have seen that true love is even
mightier than I am! True love can do something that I alone could not
do." But that will not cause any unhappiness to God; it will
make Him totally euphoric. God will have found the state of joy that
He has always been seeking. Once He experiences the reality of His
true love He can say, "Now I feel accomplishment, having
fulfilled perfection and the purpose of creation. Amen!"

Remaking Man

But in reality this fulfillment of God's true love never occurred
in all of history. Why is it that men and women were supposed to be
in the position to return that true love to God, but they fell. Ever
since the fall of Adam and Eve, men and women have never been fully
restored.

God has never experienced the fulfillment of His true love through
His creation. The world became satanic, filled with untrue,
self-centered love. God's purpose has therefore been to restore
humankind to the point where this state of joy could be realized.
There is a lot of laundry to do. There is an incredible amount of
dirtiness in mankind. The stains are so ingrained that a simple
washing cannot suffice. Therefore, God has had to unravel the fabric
and reweave it with new threads.

God thus needs a factory in which He can remake human beings.
Throughout history religions have served as such mending or remaking
factories. However, so far no factory has been able to reconstruct
everything. One religion might be redoing the right leg; another
religion might be redoing the left leg; another religion might be
doing the arms; another doing the ears; another the eyes, the nose,
and so forth. The whole process of remaking was divided among the
different religions.

All this time, however, each religion has been working
independently. Thus the left-leg religion and the right-leg religion
each thought they had the complete and definitive plan. But now the
final days have come -- the time for an all-encompassing religion to
emerge and remake the whole body of humankind.

So far in history there has also been great separation between the
races, particularly between black and white. God wanted the
distinction between the races to be maintained until the time when
the Messiah would come; in this way each race could highly develop
its special characteristics. The Messiah is to bring these
contrasting races together in one beautiful, harmonious relationship.
They will be able to weep and laugh together and share everything
together. But in order to create such an all- encompassing atmosphere
of love, True Parents are needed. This is because the deep love that
is necessary to bond all races together as one family cannot be
engendered without parental love. Thus the Messiah must come in the
position of a True Parent Without this basic structure of love coming
down from heaven through True Parents there is no way to create
harmony between the races.

In a way, the Unification movement can be described as the final
remaking factory for human beings. Thus when you first come here, you
will be given rough treatment, as if you were raw material being
divided into pieces; this is because you have to give up your former
self. Then you are fed by the milk of True Parents' love, for the
first time in history. Ultimately, a new person will emerge, a person
of true love. This is almost like a beast being transformed into a
human being. This is what the Unification Church is all about.

The Final Phase of Salvation

The question of love is the central question for the Unification
Church. This is where humanity went wrong. In the Bible, God gave
Adam and Eve the commandment: You can eat of all the trees, but do
not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Today's
established Christian churches do not understand that the fruit
represents love. God asked Adam and Eve to maintain their purity
until He would bless them in marriage. When they broke that
commandment, the fallen generations began.

We were all born to be the children of God, to be His princes and
princesses. But what happened? The first ancestors joined with Satan;
ultimately human beings became a part of the satanic lineage. This is
the reason Jesus said, "You brood of vipers. How can you speak
of good when you are evil? "That is why people must shed their
blood in order to cleanse their blood lineage. And that is why the
history of Christianity has been a history of suffering and
martyrdom.

We need another phase in the process of the remaking of man. We
need the final part of the process, by which all the remade parts of
the body of humanity can be sewn together. Most importantly, the
stained blood lineage of Satan must be completely cleansed, or else
the reassembly of the whole body will be to no purpose. You have to
know clearly what the responsibility of the Unification Church is: to
get rid of the satanic lineage and transfer humankind into the
heavenly lineage of God through true love. In that way we will bring
liberation to God and humanity.

Therefore, the greatest of all revolutions has been ignited by
Rev. Moon. He has brought the way for all human beings to rid
themselves of the satanic lineage and be restored into the heavenly
lineage.

According to God's original concept, He was to be united with
Adam, Eve, the archangel, Cain, and Abel. All of them were supposed
to be united as one, but instead, because of the fall they became
divided as enemies. The Cain and Abel conflict has grown now to the
worldwide level. The free world represents the Abel camp and the
communist world represents the Cain camp. The central nation in the
free world is the United States of America; within the United States,
Christianity is in the Abel position and the government is in the
Cain position.

Unless Cain and Abel are united, there is no way for humanity to
return to God's ideal. Today the True Parents are tearing down all
the barriers on every level -- religious barriers, national barriers,
racial and cultural barriers. Thus people can more easily communicate
and became one. Satan knows that we are approaching the final stages
of restoration and so he is dealing his final blows. He is doing this
through the destruction of love. Love has become extremely degraded
and perverted. For example, free sex is completely opposed to God's
morality; through its increasing popularity Satan is trying to block
God's dispensation. At this time we are witnessing the complete
destruction of the love tradition throughout the world. Knowing that,
the Messiah is establishing this most crucial aspect of re-creation,
the tradition of true love. The Unification Church and Rev. Moon have
been working to accomplish this within modem-day society.

Absolute Necessity of Parents

Marriage within the Unification Church has an extraordinary
meaning. A man represents the plus aspects of the universe; a woman
represents the minus aspects. God is bringing them together into
harmony, and as a result God's joy can be fulfilled. The large
weddings of the Unification Church are guided by this philosophy and
purpose. When a man and woman come together in love, a tremendous
universal spark is created. But that spark requires the input of God.
The human spark of love alone is horizontal; it creates only a
simple, plain light. However, when man's love combines with woman's
love, it creates a base for the vertical love to come down and hit
that horizontal love. When that vertical love is welcomed into the
human relationship a rainbow of light is produced and it spreads all
over the world.

Everything in creation will open its mouth and joyfully welcome
that beautiful light, crying, "Oh! Come into me, beautiful
light!" Only that perfect light can fill up everything,
everywhere. Love is precious, but no one knew how precious it was
until Rev. Moon came. We cannot buy true love even with the whole
universe or God. Nobody in history has known that the cosmos was
created to center upon the love between an ideal man and wife nor
that this ideal has never been realized. This secret has been
revealed in detail through Rev. Moon, and Unificationists have come
to be convinced of its validity. This is why Moonies are so strong
and courageous.

Wherever true love goes, it causes re-creation and transformation.
No matter which continent it touches -- Africa, South America, Asia
-- it does the same thing. Therefore, the Unification Church is
bringing rebirth and regeneration to all of humanity. Without
experiencing true love here on earth, no one is allowed to enter the
Kingdom of Heaven in spirit world. For that reason, the Kingdom of
Heaven has been empty until now. The keys to that Kingdom were given
to Peter while Jesus was here on earth. This is the agony of Jesus,
which no one has understood. Even though Jesus came here for the
purpose of salvation, he could never open up the door of the Kingdom
of Heaven because he could not freely disseminate true love centered
upon the ideal of True Parents. It is only through True Parents that
true love can be given to humanity.

The entire teaching of the Bible centers upon one key point: the
fulfillment of true love. Jesus came to expound upon true love. He
was supposed to take the position of bridegroom and take a bride, and
then teach about true love, with him and his bride becoming True
Parents at that time. True love can never be found unless True
Parents appear on the earth. This is a central truth. Thus even
though Jesus came to be the Messiah two thousand years ago, he could
not fulfill the highest level of true love here on earth because he
could not go up to the level of True Parents. The fulfillment of true
love means that the ideal of True Parents has been established on the
earth.

The Bible teaches that in the Last Days the bridegroom and bride
will meet. This means Eden will be restored. The Bible teaches that
in the Garden of Eden, there were two trees, the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life. Christianity has not
understood clearly what these two trees symbolize, but in fact they
symbolize ideal man and woman, father and mother -- the parents in
the Garden of Eden. At the time of the Exodus when Moses was leading
his people through the wilderness, they were guided by a pillar of
cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. These pillars symbolized,
again, the True Parents, the father and mother who would come to lead
humanity to the Promised Land. Furthermore, when Moses went up to the
top of Mount Sinai and received the Ten Commandments, those
commandments were inscribed on two tablets of stone. Why were there
two? They symbolized the father and mother, the True Parents, who are
the full embodiment of the word of God.

The dispensation at the time of the Exodus was symbolic of and
parallel to the future era of the True Parents. Moses' course was
intended to be a symbolic teaching for humanity, so that the people
could be prepared for the coming of the Messiah. God educated the
Israelites through the Exodus so that they would be ready for the
advent of the Messiah, Jesus. Jesus was intended to fulfill the ideal
of True Parents. However, as God taught during the time of Moses,
absolute faith and obedience on the part of the people were necessary
in order for the Messiah's goals to be fulfilled. But because the
people's faith and obedience v. ere not rendered unto Jesus in his
time, everything was destroyed. The True Parents and their love were
not established on earth, and only spiritual salvation became
possible. Physical salvation did not happen, so the Messiah had to
come again. It was a great tragedy for history that we had to wait
for the Second Coming.

If anyone in the world feels proud of himself or herself, that
person should ask God what He thinks. God will say, "You cannot
be proud of yourself. You were born of satanic lineage."

Satan's worst crime was that he stole love away from God. For that
crime there can be no compassion, no forgiveness. In a way, the focal
point of the battle within our society is the struggle for love.
Satan is trying to pervert love and make it his. God is trying to
restore love into heavenly and pure love. Rev. Moon is not a mediocre
and compromising man. God needs people like me because I am
absolutely committed to His work. Many people might say that Rev.
Moon is too harsh, too strong, but he gives the prescription that
this world needs. People come into the Unification Church with
spiritual stains on them. But Rev. Moon takes them and pounds and
pounds on them until they turn into pure, white seeds.

God Longs To Meet a Real Man

There are many holidays which people celebrate, but there has not
been a day with universal value, representing the central theme of
the universe, until this day.

Father speaks in English*:

There are many different days that people can commemorate, such as
their anniversaries or special days of happiness; there are also
memorable days for a nation. But until now, God has not had His own
special days to remember. You have to think about that. God doesn't
have happy days to remember. Until now, God has agonized throughout
history, "Who will fulfill my ideal? I long to meet this man."
That man is the Messiah.

Originally God created humankind but the result was fallen people.
From that point on, humans were in a sense not real humans; they were
twisted and stained. That is why God started re-creation, the history
of restoration. God wants to meet the real man; He is yearning to see
that day -- Real Man Day, Real Woman Day, Real Couples Day. He wants
to see the people who can combine human love with God's love. From
the couple it can multiply to the family, tribe, nation, world, and
the whole universe. Where can we meet this kind of man and woman? God
has been wondering about this throughout history. No one has
understood God's situation. There have been many philosophers but
they have never been able to understand the meaning of history; they
have made up a lot of complicated theories.

Rev. Moon means a great deal to God's restorational history. It is
not by man's power, nor by the power of armaments, but only by the
power of true love that evil can be overcome. He was the individual
who fulfilled man's purpose and accomplished the family purpose.
Finding disciples one by one, gradually accumulating a foundation --
you have to know how many tears are behind this Principle, how much
agony. Up until now I have gone to jail six times, almost five years
altogether. I am not a bad person. When I was struggling to discover
the Principle I didn't have anyone. I was alone. After finding out
the whole of the Principle the intense fighting continued. I know the
difficulties there have been up to this point; you don't know them.
How many complications there have been in creating order on the
right, on the left, in front, and behind, all so that now people can
understand the Principle! There has been so much persecution, so much
suffering, to bring the Principle and true love into substance and
reality. It is priceless.

Translation from Korean resumes:

You must come to realize what a precious gift you have in the
truth you have found through the teaching of Rev. Moon. You should
also know how much Father suffered to reach and dig out that truth
for the sake of humanity. You are the first recipients of that truth.
You ought to come to the realization that you are not in a normal
church; you are not living a normal kind of life compared with other
men and women. You are in an extraordinary position, a blessed
position.

Note:

* The tape did not pick up all of Father's words in English. This
is the editor's reconstruction from that which was audible. -- Ed.